Populist Pitchforks Could Easily Turn Toward Wall Street

My latest column looks at how Wall Street bonuses could make the financial world a target for those Tea Party populists:

Could all those populist pitchforks currently pointed at Washington be turned toward Wall Street instead?

That’s the question that ought to worry Wall Street executives as they prepare to pay themselves nice bonuses this month, hard on the heels of a government bailout of the financial system, and amid continuing job losses around the rest of the country. Financial firms know they’re in for heat on bonuses; they’ve already been chastised on national TV by President Barack Obama’s chief economist.

The more searing heat, though, might come not from Washington’s corridors of power but from the streets, where disjointed populist armies are starting to organize in the so-called tea-party movement.

It’s a movement dominated for the moment by mistrust of big government and big government health-care plans. But it’s also animated by mistrust of big institutions in general, and a tendency to see those institutions secretly working in tandem to the detriment of the little guy. So it’s a short leap from anger at Washington’s spending of taxpayer dollars to anger at Wall Street executives saved by those same taxpayer dollars — and then taking home big bonus checks.

We won’t have to wait long to find out how combustible this mixture might be. The tea-party movement is holding its first national convention Feb. 4 to 6, in Nashville, and organizers say it’s already sold out. Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will be the star speaker; East Coast elites of all stripes might want to steer clear.